One Day in Your Life: January 25, 1977

January 25, 1977, is a Tuesday. The weather across the country is generally pretty good for the depths of winter, although Cleveland and Detroit get some snow. Among many actions during his first week in office, President Carter continues to address natural gas shortages around the country, and he has rescinded President Ford’s order lifting price controls on gasoline. Top administration officials must now drive themselves to work instead of taking government limousines. Today, Budget Director Bert Lance announces a plan to award taxpayers a $50 rebate for each exemption they claim, to help stimulate the ecomomy. The Senate confirms Griffin Bell as Carter’s attorney general, and Joseph Califano is sworn in as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. In Racine, Wisconsin, teachers go on strike. Movie stuntman Dale Van Sickel dies at age 69, and in Waterloo, Wisconsin, an early-morning house fire kills three children aged 3, 8, and 10. The National Hockey League all-star game is played in Vancouver; the Wales Conference team beats the Campbell Conference team 4-3. At the Prange-Way department store in Madison, Wisconsin, bicentennial glassware is closeout priced—six 15-ounce glasses for $2.99, one dollar off. A local appliance store invites customers to a demonstration of the new Litton microwave oven. About an hour south of Madison, a farm wife with three sons aged 16, 14, and 10, not known for being an early adopter of new technology, will soon get one for her kitchen.

Led Zeppelin announces an upcoming American tour, set to open in Texas at the end of February. (Dates will be postponed when Robert Plant comes down with laryngitis.) Queen plays Ottawa, Ontario, KISS plays Terre Haute, Indiana, ELO is at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, and the Atlanta Rhythm Section appears at the Bottom Line in New York City. Tom Waits appears on the daytime TV show Dinah!, where he performs “Step Right Up” from his album Small Change. David Brenner co-hosts The Mike Douglas Show this week; today, guests include Phyllis Diller, actor David Doyle, and film director Dino DeLaurentiis. On primetime TV, NBC’s lineup includes Police Story, and CBS airs episodes of M*A*S*H, One Day at a Time, and Kojak, but most viewers are watching the third episode of Roots, which ABC has scheduled on eight straight nights to get it over with, fearing it will be a ratings disaster.

On the Cash Box survey dated January 22, 1977, “Car Wash” by Rose Royce is in its second week at #1. New in the top 10 are “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band at #7 and “New Kid in Town” by the Eagles at #10. Al Stewart’s “Year of the Cat” makes the biggest move within the top 40, up to #22 from #32. Hot new songs include “Dancing Queen” by ABBA, “Hard Luck Woman” by KISS, and “Carry on Wayward Son” by Kansas, but the hottest is the new Fleetwood Mac single, “Go Your Own Way,” up to #28 from #45.

Perspective From the Present: I am incapable of any kind of perspective on this week. Some things in our lives we can’t be remotely objective about, and this week is one of them. But that’s not why I wrote this post. The other night, I met my Internet friend Randy Raley in the real world for the first time. I’m a fan of his blog (which has six years of archives for you to get lost in, and I recommend you do so), and he’s a fan of this one. Randy says he especially likes these One Day in Your Life posts, so that was excuse enough to write one.

Like this:

Related

Post navigation

8 responses

I remember plopping one of the freshly-unboxed promo 45s of “Hard Luck Woman” on the turntable at the distributor I was working for. First impression as the intro unfolded: what pressing plant mix-up had caused “Maggie May” to appear on the Casablanca label?

Remember Carter’s inaugeral parade from a few days before, how he and Rosalynn got out of the limo and walked down Pennsylvania Ave in the sub-freezing temps. And that’s the last we’ll see of anything like that.

I remember “Super Night at the Super Bowl” hosted by Jackie Gleason which was televised by CBS in January 1977. (I believe it was on the Saturday night a week prior to the Super Bowl between the Vikings and the Raiders.) Jimmy Carter, who was “President-elect” at the time, tossed out bags of peanuts to the crowd in a surprise appearance.

Now THAT would’ve been funny! Can you imagine Billy Carter tossing out cans of Billy Beer and “clonking” people in the audience on live television? That would’ve been the ultimate PR disaster even before the Carter Administration took office.

Library

Categories

Requests

Cume

Fine Print

Further Fine Print

All text copyright 2004-2015 by James A. Bartlett--not that this little notice is going to stop anybody from stealing stuff if they want to.

Opinions here are mine alone, and not those of anyone else, particularly my radio employer, Mid-West Family Broadcasting, my various freelance writing clients (gasbag for hire, America), my mom, or of any other entity, animal, vegetable, or mineral, either living or dead. Which is a line I think I stole from Larry Lujack.

Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam

Enter your email address below and the crappy posts on this blog will become crappy e-mails sent directly to you.